The Salzburg Semester

Over the past 55 years, over 3,000 Redlands students have studied in Salzburg, Austria, in a program that is renowned for its excitement, cultural enrichment, and experiential opportunities. Students reside in the Marketenderschlössl, a nearly 500-year-old Renaissance building set among forests and meadows overlooking the ancient heart of Salzburg. Beyond the trees in the near distance one can see the snow-capped peaks of the Austrian and Bavarian Alps.

The Salzburg Semester, which Redlands has operated since 1960, is characterized by a general humanities and social sciences curriculum and offered in the context of group study and extensive travel opportunities. The program is available to undergraduates regardless of major, with preference given to those students who have shown evidence of preparing themselves academically and personally for this group travel-study program. The Salzburg Program is student-centered, offers experiential education, and features group travel.

Experiential Education

Salzburg students have the opportunity to leave the traditional classroom setting and surround themselves in the historical richness of Europe. Field excursions and group travel create relevance to academic coursework. Some examples of the coursework include: attending classical and contemporary concerts, operas, art studio and gallery tours, salt-mine adventures, and Alpine mountain hikes. These experiential course components elucidate the textbook images and lectures students receive in class. As the program draws to a close, all students participate in a unique integrative learning project. Bringing together their reflective journals, oral reports, reflections on travel, and experiences from all four courses.

Group Travel

The Salzburg program is based on the philosophy that classes are greatly enriched by on-site study. A unique feature of the Salzburg Semester has always been the group travel. Students take local excursions to the Salzkammergut (the famous lake district) and Hallstatt (site of the oldest salt mines in the region) to illustrate Austrian culture. A long weekend in Vienna is the first of three faculty-led excursions. The second excursion offers the opportunity to examine cultural developments in Italy. Students tour Venice, explore the treasures of Rome, visit tranquil Assisi, and end the tour in the Renaissance marvel of Florence. Later in the semester, students traverse through the Balkans. As they travel within the historical remnants of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire, students explore former Yugoslavia, a region still recovering from the atrocities of the Balkan War; including Bosnia (Sarajevo and Mostar), Croatia, and Slovenia. All expenses associated with these major field trips are included in the comprehensive program fee.